A massive new international meta-study has blown the lid off the masking narrative by analyzing the true effectiveness of masks for tackling infection or illness rates.
The study was published in the peer-reviewed British medical journal Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on January 30.
The definitive conclusion from the team of 12 international researchers in the study is the strongest scientific evidence to date refuting the basis for mask mandates worldwide.
The research collaboration analyzed several dozen rigorous studies focusing on “physical interventions” against COVID-19 and influenza.
The researchers found that masks provide “little to no” protection against infection or illness rates of COVID-19 and the flu.
Yet, the CDC still recommends masking in areas with “high” rates of transmission along with indoor masking in areas with “medium” rates of transmission (27%).
According to Just the News, fewer than 4 percent of US counties are considered areas with “high” rates of transmission.
The Daily Mail notes that masks are still required in educational institutions in Democratic strongholds such as New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington, and California.
In early January, Boston Public Schools denied its “temporary masking protocol” was a “mandate,” following a public letter against the policy by student Enrique Abud Evereteze.
Meanwhile, South Korea is still requiring masks on public transport and in medical facilities after dropping COVID mandates in most indoor settings, including gyms, on Monday, Reuters reported
Nearly 60% of South Korea's population has now tested positive for COVID despite nearly three years of consistent universal masking with overwhelming compliance
When will it be enough for "experts" to admit masks don't work? pic.twitter.com/LS0JF9niog
— Ian Miller (@ianmSC) January 25, 2023
The Cochrane study, which included the work of researchers at institutions in the U.K., Canada, Australia, Italy and Saudi Arabia, analyzed a total of 78 studies.
The most recent additions to the meta-analysis were 11 new randomized controlled trials.
Carl Heneghan, an unlisted author of the study, commented on the findings on Twitter.
“Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness (ILI)/COVID-19 like illness compared to not wearing masks,” said Heneghan, who directs the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford.
Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing masks (risk ratio (RR) 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84 to 1.09; 9 trials, 276,917 participants
— Carl Heneghan (@carlheneghan) January 30, 2023
Harms were rarely measured and poorly reported (very low‐certainty evidence).
— Carl Heneghan (@carlheneghan) January 30, 2023
The recent additions to the Cochrane study include COVID pandemic trials: two from Mexico and one each from England, Norway, Denmark, and Bangladesh, the latter two well-known internationally.
The Danish study had trouble finding a major journal willing to publish its controversial findings that wearing surgical masks had no statistically significant effect on infection rates, even among those who claimed to wear them “exactly as instructed,” Just the News notes.
Mainstream media overlooked red flags in the Bangladeshi mask study, which found no effect for surgical masks under age 50 and a difference of only 20 infections between control and treatment groups among 342,000 adults.
Moreover, the study concludes that among medical workers, even the more robust N95 masks did not yield greater protection compared to more standard masks, which might surprise people who wear the boxier masks believing they are gaining heightened protection from COVID.
“There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection,” reports the abstract. The authors conclude: “The pooled results of RCTs [randomized controlled trials] did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks.”
2/ LARGE Cochrane Rev (just published 1/30/23) of RCT data ALSO CONFIRMS NO BENEFIT of N95 masks vs. med/surg masks, in either community (n~8K) or HCW (n~8K) settings for prevention of flu-like illness or lab confirmed flu https://t.co/N4TkgI4uUR pic.twitter.com/0DCdYAPo7x
— Andrew Bostom, MD, MS (@andrewbostom) January 31, 2023
The researchers analyzed 78 “randomized controlled studies” through October 2022 that looked at physical measures people take to avoid getting a respiratory infection like influenza or COVID-19 — from hand-washing and using hand sanitizers to wearing various types of face masks.
The bottom line of the researchers’ findings is that mask-wearing “probably makes little to no difference,” when it comes to influenza-like or Covid-like illnesses, regardless of the type of mask used.
READ MORE: Fauci Knew Masking Was ‘Ineffective’ While Pushing Mask Mandates, Deposition Reveals
